Data breaches are, by far, one of today’s biggest and most threatening problems for not only commercial businesses, but consumers and governments too. With the growth of the general use of the internet, data breaches have increased at an alarming rate.

Today, breaches are commonplace and are viewed as part of the normal day-to-day. But what can you do about this? Here are some easy ways to protect your data from the threat of a data breach.

1. Use Access Controls

Many commercial data breaches occur due to the poor use, misuse or complete absence of access controls. Although it is true that many breaches occur due to flaws in IT infrastructure, just as many occur because of inadequate access controls.

Even with the most expensive, robust and impenetrable IT infrastructure, a lack of access control will provide cybercriminals with an open door.

Access controls—both physical and virtual—add a protective layer to your data. They manage who can access certain areas either within a physical location or on a system, and when. Without access controls, if a malicious party gains access to your systems undetected, they can then begin to read and steal sensitive information and personal data.

To that end, make sure that you are properly disposing of old documents such as bank statements and tax records that you no longer need. If something contains your Social Security Number, destroy it when you are finished. If you need your social security card for something, don’t carry it in your wallet alongside your bank cards.

It is the basic management of your personal physical information like this which can prevent your offline mistakes from transferring to the online world.

3. Keep Tabs on the Latest Cybersecurity News

If you are unaware of the potential threats you may face, you will struggle to fend them off. Cybercrime is constantly evolving, and cybercriminals are always developing new ways to dupe regular people into disclosing their data.

By reading up on the latest in cybersecurity every so often and protecting your PC using robust and trusted antivirus software, you keep yourself consistently aware of the current threats and are better equipped to fight them off.

What If Things Do Go Wrong?

Although properly managing your personal information, being aware of the latest cybersecurity threats and using access control methods are key ways to protect yourself or your business, things do (and probably will at some point) go wrong.

If one day you receive notice that a website you use has suffered an attack and that your data has been compromised, there are several things you should immediately do to protect your interests.

The big problem with data breaches is the “maybe” factor—that is, that your data may have been stolen and that any stolen data may have been sensitive. The only people who know what has been stolen are the attackers, unfortunately. If you are part of a large-scale data breach the chances are that you’ll be fine, but that doesn’t mean you should be complacent.

Taking Action in Case of a Data Breach

It always helps to determine what was stolen. Although you can never know for certain, think about what type of information was stored on your account. Not all data us usable, but you are more at risk if you used a compromised site.

For example, was it less sensitive information such as your name and street? Very little can be done with this. However, once information such as email addresses, dates of birth and card information is at risk, immediate action is needed.

Data Breaches Aren’t Going Anywhere

And they are only going to get worse.

Even though end-users aren’t typically the target of a corporate, or government data breach, they can still be affected.

Today, we live in a world powered by data… it has even been hailed as more valuable than oil. It is good practice for businesses of all sizes to prevent data breaches, and fortunately most understand this.

That being said, it is still important for individuals to be aware of them and their potential risks. This is particularly true if an individual is well-connected to a prominent company, industry, or is notable for other reasons.

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dragonmouth

October 21, 2018 at 1:45 pm

Although your advice is great in preventing or at least ameliorating data breaches from one's personal computer, it is useless in preventing the corporate data breaches which are much more damaging than personal ones. There is absolutely nothing an individual user can do to prevent such data breaches as Facebook, Equifax, Yahoo, Target and many others which resulted in tens or hundreds of millions of records being stolen/compromised.

Luke is a law graduate and freelance technology writer from the UK. Taking to technology from an early age, his primary interests and areas of expertise include cybersecurity and emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence.